There’s an old line from the newspaper business: “If it bleeds, it leads.”
This was one of those weeks where the front page editors had their hands full. A war in the Middle East, an attempted plane hijacking in the northwest, and a senseless shooting in a small town in Maine.
With the regularity of mass tragedies in US, the most deadly shooting of the year almost gets lost in the shuffle. I’m reminded of the Onion headline, "'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
But it’s incumbent on all of us to not mistake frequency with normalcy. This week’s piece, a personal essay from a proud gun owner, jolted me back to attention. Someone said the quiet part out loud.
Here’s the piece: How Much Blood Is Your Fun Worth?
Personal updates:
I sold my second book! I’m excited to announce that my second book—currently untitled, but broadly on the topic of uncertainty and doubt—will be published in late 2025. I’m stoked to be working with the same team at Penguin as The Good Enough Job and to have a rich, urgent topic to research for the next year.
If you have any thoughts on how to become more comfortable with uncertainty or people you think I should talk to, feel free to reply to this email or fill out this form.
Warmly,
Simo
P.S. The song of the week is a hauntingly beautiful piano ballad from the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. The full songs of the week playlist is here.